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Area officials support statewide hotel tax
By Jonathan Tamari If Gov. James E. McGreevey pursues a tax on stays at hotels and motels, he will find some support among Central New Jersey officials. The tax -- considered by McGreevey as a source of revenue to help fill the pending $5 billion deficit in the state budget -- would include bed-and-breakfast inns and possibly Shore rentals, and could raise more than $50 million a year. "We're the only state in the Union that doesn't have a statewide hotel tax," David Stahl, vice president of the East Brunswick Township Council, said yesterday. "It's a great way for East Brunswick as well as other communities to raise revenues that are not on the back of our own residents." Edison could realize more than $1 million a year in hotel taxes, Mayor George Spadoro said. He bemoaned the fact that New Jersey residents pay hotel taxes when they travel to other parts of the country but cannot charge visitors who come to the Garden State. The state, Spadoro said, should "enable (New Jersey) communities to raise revenues in the way it is traditionally done in other cities." Citing Statehouse sources, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the hotel-motel tax would be about 6 percent and would be split with municipalities. McGreevey and his aides would not discuss the proposal, which could still be dropped before the governor presents his 2003-04 budget. "The budget is still being formulated, and no decision has been made one way or another," spokesman Micah Rasmussen said. "Nothing has been ruled on or off the table." Visitors to the state benefit from local infrastructure and may use local services, he said. The possibility of a new tax has angered those in the hotel and motel industry, however, because guests already pay the state's 6 percent sales tax. "And the industry is struggling to survive," said Joseph Simonetta, a spokesman for the New Jersey Hotel and Lodging Association and the New Jersey Travel and Tourism Industry. He said a lodging tax would add up to "double taxation, and that only on one industry." Any money raise from such a tax should be put into a fund for tourism and marketing, Simonetta said. Democrats familiar with McGreevey's budget discussions said the hotel tax is appealing because the burden would fall mostly on travelers from out of state. There is opposition from Democrats to including Shore rentals because it would affect New Jersey families who spend summer vacations at the Shore. The lawmakers favor legislation that would give officials at Shore towns the choice of whether to impose the tax. Lawmakers from Shore regions in the state, including state Sen. William Gormley, R-Atlantic, said they would oppose any legislation that calls for a tax on Shore rentals. Bill Dressel, the executive director of the New Jersey League of Municipalities, said the group backs legislation that would give municipalities the right to levy a hotel tax as a way of easing the property tax burden of homeowners. Dressel said money from any hotel tax should be used to pay for services in the municipalities where the businesses are located. "They (towns) should be able to reap most
of the benefits of such a tax," he said. |
